New Year = New Mission

At its regular December meeting, Trinity’s congregational council voted to recommend to the congregation a draft of a new mission statement. The congregation will vote on this new statement at our annual congregational meeting, on Sunday, February 4. The meeting will begin immediately following lunch together.

The draft of the new statement is:

Eighteen months ago, our council took a look at and evaluated Trinity’s existing mission statement. Given the changes and new ministries that we were beginning, they decided that it might be time to examine the statement and determine if any changes were needed.

A task force was created that included:

Andy Boe

Kathy Chatelaine

Intern Pastor Madison Chelberg (joined us for the last 4 months)

Molly Froman

Matt Kottke

Marne Slack

Pastor Todd

In 1999, we adopted the statement: “Trinity Lutheran Church exists as a community of believers, growing disciples for Jesus Christ.”

Now let me be clear, the existing mission statement served Trinity very well. But the data that came out of the CAT survey, and the ministries we’ve grown in the last couple of years are more outward focused than what our old statement represents. Everyone agreed that it was time to redevelop our statement to reflect where we believe God is calling us to grow as a congregation.

When the task force was doing its work, there were several different things they wanted a new mission statement to reflect:

It was important that our statement begins with Jesus. That it begins with “Through Jesus’ love…” is a bold statement that all we do is because of, and in response to what God has first done for us.

We wanted it to be short, and easy to remember

We wanted it to be “active” rather than descriptive. It should focus not who who we think we are (vision) but rather on what God is calling us to do (mission.)

We wanted to use everyday, common language, so that those who were just stepping into our community would easily understand what we were about. We talked about words like “evangelism” and “stewardship” but thought that words like “welcome, connect, learn and serve” would speak more plainly and descriptively, would avoid insider language, and encompassed all of those words that might create a barrier for new people.

Ultimately, this is not our mission. It is God’s mission. And a statement just describes how a congregation is going to take on that mission. But it is important because it gives us both a plum line and a filter. Everything that we do as a congregation should connect with our mission statement. Everything we do should fulfill our goals and objectives in worship, connection, learning and service.

Everything…all of our resources, all of our energy will go to work within this mission, as we move our community forward, and we reach outward, in the name of Jesus.

And in five or six years, we’ll pause and evaluate. Perhaps it will be time to adjust our mission statement again!

I’m excited for our conversations between now and February 4th as we look together at God’s Mission through Trinity!